Hiking To Sheepback Mountain Lake

Wolf’s Haven is at about the 3,800 foot elevation on Sheepback Mountain and we have a “lake” which is more like a small, natural reservoir that feeds our creek at about the 4,900 foot elevation of our 5,000 foot elevation mountain.

Last year Cindy and I drove part way up the main road to an access trail so that we could do what should have been a short hike to the lake. The only problem being that our extraordinary map-reading skills caused us to hike past the trail we needed to get on to get to the lake four(!) different times.

This year, Cindy said she had asked around and found that we could walk from Wolf’s Haven, out to the main road and then up a short trail and we could be at the lake in “no time” following this trail.

Famous last words.

Cindy, Amber and Abby as we prepare to hike up to the lake.

Leaving the main road and starting up the trail that will bring us to the lake “in no time.”

We trekked 35 minutes up the rocky trail to this beautiful waterfall that we were told we’d pass on the way to the lake.

Amber and Abby pose in front of a huge rock wall on the side of the mountain as we continue up to the lake.

Here we are on the last leg of the hike before reaching the lake. The trail had changed just before this to from the sloped, rocky, hard to navigate surface we spent most of the hike walking on to the flat, grassy trail you see here. It was a welcome change.

Abby posing in front of the lake that we finally reached after 2 1/2(!) hours of uphill hiking. For the record, this trail was NOT shorter than driving up the main road to a trail like we did last year.

Amber and Abby pose at the edge of the lake before we head back down the trail.

The hike downhill took, of course, less time than the hike up to the lake and we ended up with a roundtrip of 4 hours and 5 minutes to hike almost 7 miles. Partway through the trip back down the trail it began raining and there was some lightning, but we avoided most of it because we were under a heavy canopy of trees and vegetation.